Jörg Widmann / Minguet Quartett – Streichquartette

I struggle to say what I intend or hope about these quartets. Primarily out of the main issue they cause, or were caused from perhaps. You see: I've mentioned my woes and complaints in rough detail before, on my views regarding the present state of classical music. More broadly speaking, it's a picture of certain strains that have brooded, ebbed-and-flowed in popularity, or otherwise been in the minds of a considerable few, from WWII onward. The gist is that I have utter contempt for much that went famous, and a love of those who held the musical spirit through those dark times. Those things that went famous generally were by composers such as Boulez or late-Stravinsky or Ligeti or Stockhausen and Cage especially. At present the composer who I hold the most towards, of whom still lives I may add, is Wolfgang Rihm.
So what does this have to do with Widmann? Well, it goes into his methodology. He claims to be a composer of sounds. Not music, sounds. His tone-rows and diatonic/chromatic scales, are spooky noises and abstract utterances. Like many before him, he uses the medium of the string quartet to bring these out in a succinct manner. An ages old trick, and it works very well, Widmann included. He gets his ideas across, very concisely, very ideally. But what does this result in? It results in nothing.
I emphasis that statement: literally nothing. The music is null, nada, kaput. Dead, lifeless and wholly without any spirit at all. It is as many would say today, the music of the bugman. It doesn't sound "bad," in any way, but it doesn't sound "good" either. It sounds like absolutely nothing, it imposes nothing...look you get the idea. It 's a sterile, mute void. And this is from a composer, who apparently got to being the third most performed in 2018. Just behind Arvo Part and John Williams, of all people. Why? I have no clue other than to speculate, that the collective intelligence of people has dropped so low, that this is now seen as fine art music. Which, to be honest, I will not dispute in the slightest. It's the only rational answer I can give myself.
Still, whatever I've found in these quartets, I've found in his music overall. What I've said here can be applied to any of it, anywhere. I think Widmann's compositional skills are non-existent, to the point where his music has as much meaning as a light gust of wind. It passes over one's shoulders, barely even arousing their attention, and it's all over. That is the effect I receive here, with a second of intrigue and then the "music" starts, where it ends with a sapping of all concern or care. I can only say that why people are (apparently) so in love with this, only hints at the lowness of their mental state, and the persistent benignity of musical culture by-and-large. Perhaps I'm a rather anachronistic sort, but for an issue that has poisoned things for 75 years - I can't be that far off.